Musings on Buddhism and modern global culture, plus a few miscellaneous topics.

Saturday, 25 January 2014

Bible belt school persecutes Buddhist child.

Edukayshun in Looziana

From The Daily News "For one sixth-grader, it’s no fun being Buddhist in the Bible Belt.

A Louisiana couple is claiming faculty and students at Negreet High School bullied their Buddhist son so badly that he became physically sick every morning before going to class.

Sharon and Scott Lane are suing the Sabine Parish School board for religious harassment and for routinely pushing Christian beliefs onto its students.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Shreveport on Wednesday.

"Public schools should be welcoming places for students of all backgrounds," said Marjorie Esman, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana. "No child should be harassed and made to feel like an outsider in his own classroom, and students should not have to endure school officials constantly imposing their religious beliefs on them while they are trying to learn."

The Lanes’ son, identified as C.C. on court papers, is a lifelong Buddhist of Thai descent. The child’s religion was reportedly ridiculed in class by science teacher Rita Roark.

The teacher added this fill-in-the-blank question to a science test: “ "ISN'T IT AMAZING WHAT THE _____________ HAS MADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

C.C. didn’t know that the answer Roark wanted was “Lord.” On the next test, C.C. filled in blank with “Lord Buddha” and the teacher marked it wrong.

While the teacher was handing the grades back to the class, one student said out loud that “people are stupid if they think God is not real." Instead of gently finding a middle ground, Roark reportedly said, "Yes! That is right! I had a student miss that on his test."

The teacher also reportedly taught the children that God created the Earth 6,000 years ago and that evolution was an “impossible” and “stupid theory made up by stupid people who don’t want to believe in God.” She told her class that the Bible was "100% true" and that Buddhism is “stupid.”

When the parents complained to Superintendent Sara Ebarb, the school official told them that "this is the Bible Belt" and suggested they change their son's faith..."More here